Concern for Peace Talks Grows as Israeli Soldier Is Slain : Mideast: Settlers group urges an end to assaults ‘on innocent Arabs.’ But West Bank leaflets call for renewed rebellion.

A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier to death in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as concern mounted that violence in the occupied territories may escalate to the point of derailing the Israeli-PLO peace talks.

With attacks and counterattacks by Jews and Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip increasing, the main Jewish settlers council issued an appeal to settlers “to stop the assaults on innocent Arabs” often committed in retaliation for strikes on Jews.

But in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, leaflets circulated calling on young people to renew the intifada , the six-year Palestinian rebellion against Israeli rule expressed largely in stone-throwing and stabbing attacks on Israelis. Israeli settlers had earlier called for a “Jewish intifada. “

“The situation is becoming unbearable, and there is no room now for discipline and restraint,” the leaflet said. “If peace is to proceed over our dead bodies and over dignity, then to hell with peace.”

The leaflet purported to come from a branch of Fatah, the mainstream movement of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. But Arafat adviser Ahmed Tibbi said the PLO leadership was not sure who was really behind it.

If authentic, it would serve as further proof that Arafat does not have the control needed to deliver on his promise that attacks against Israelis would stop, as agreed in talks that led to the accord on Palestinian self-rule signed in Washington on Sept. 13.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres acknowledged in the Israeli Parliament that “all Fatah can do today is condemn things. It has no real power to act against terrorism.”

But Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, traveling in Canada, said the talks will continue no matter what.

“With all of the pain and sorrow, we will continue with the negotiations and we will fight terror,” he said.

Israel was reported to be moving more troops into the occupied territories to try to quell the violence, which has reached a level of two or three attacks per day recently. Israeli soldiers shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian youth who had been throwing stones on Tuesday, apparently prompting the Fatah leaflet.

The talks on implementing the Sept. 13 agreement were reported to be progressing in Cairo, but Tibbi said that “if the settlers go wild and the Palestinians can’t defend themselves, it can hurt the peace process.”

Palestinians blame Jewish settlers, many of whom oppose the Sept. 13 accord, for cranking up the cycle of violence with vigilante raids after each attack on a Jew.

Israeli settlers, who number roughly 125,000 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, blame Palestinian militants who oppose the pact.

The soldier killed Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, identified as Staff Sgt. Haim Darina, was a reservist whose throat was cut as he sat in a cafeteria near a checkpoint.

Israeli sources said the attacker, who was seized, was affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a group that opposes the peace agreement.